Bill Gates in New Orleans: Ebola not the last epidemic of its kind

As Ebola rages through west Africa, claiming lives, jumping continents and inciting fear, world leaders must take note and learn from the epidemic because this won't be the last to ravage lives and rattle governments.

That was what Bill Gates told thousands of scientists gathered in New Orleans Sunday night for the 63rd annual meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, a leading gathering of infectious-disease researchers.

"We need to exercise maximum effort to bring this to a close, to make sure it doesn't spread," Gates said. "We also know that this will not be the last epidemic of its kind. In fact, if you look out over the next several decades, there's a meaningful chance that there will be another epidemic that will be even worse, more transmissive than even this is."

The United States philanthropist and former Microsoft chief executive officer opened up the five-day conference with a keynote address that brought additional global perspective to a headline-grabbing disease that, most recently in Louisiana, prompted Gov. Bobby Jindal to institute a controversial travel policy that kept a number of leading Ebola researchers from attending the New Orleans meeting.

Dr. Alan Magill, the organization's president, noted the missing scientists as he introduced Gates, calling the absence of some of the world's best scientists the "unintended consequence of rather Draconian policies within the U.S. government."

"The people of America, the people of Louisiana and certainly the people of New Orleans are a generous and caring people and are not interested in travel bans," Magill said. "What they are is actually scared. They're afraid. They have a fear of Ebola, and fear leads to irrational behavior and irrational actions. We know this."

Magill urged those gathered "to acknowledge that fear" while working with policy makers to ensure laws don't prohibit professionals from traveling and working in Ebola-affected areas.

"These individuals need to be recognized as the heroes they are, not stigmatized and banned from coming home," he said.

Taking the lectern, Gates described this as "a pivotal moment in global health," and called for greater global investment in primary health-care systems in all countries, especially in areas like the west African countries of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, where already weak health systems have "largely shut down" in the wake of the scourge.

He said priority should be given to improving disease surveillance across the globe to detect emerging pathogens. America should "double down" investments in research and development, Gates said, to improve diagnostic testing, create better antivirals and new vaccines.

Finally, he said, more work should be done to improve epidemic management on a global scale.

"I'm hopeful that this ends soon, and I'm hopeful we then don't turn back to business as usual because this may not be the toughest crisis all of us face in our lifetime in terms of a global health outbreak," Gates said, speaking to a packed room at the New Orleans Marriott Hotel that spilled into an overflow area.

Gates, whose Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has invested about $2 billion to try to eradicate malaria, said that while the moment feels particularly desperate in the wake of such disease, global trends indicate incredible improvement in several areas.

More than 20 million children under 5 died in 1960, compared with 6.6 million in 2012, he said, and the number of children crippled by polio has dropped from 350,000 cases per year to fewer than 300.

Crediting the development of new vaccines and drugs for much for the progress, Gates said continued improvement depends upon furthering such work. "That gives us the chance to achieve health equity where we really do treat the value of a life globally as though if it does have the same value as life in developed countries."

The meeting continues through Thursday and is expected to draw about 4,000 people. While Ebola-related research is likely to draw attention, more than 80 percent of the research being presented involves other infectious diseases.

Ebola, which has infected more than 13,000 people and claimed the lives of nearly 5,000, is transmitted through direct contact with the bodily fluid of someone who has Ebola and who is exhibiting symptoms.

There have been four confirmed cases in the U.S., one of whom has died. The other three were all health-care workers.

The state Health Department had a booth set up Sunday night next to the conference registration desks.